Coop Design for an Open World David G. Bowring David Bowring - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Coop Design for an Open World David G. Bowring

• David Bowring – Gameplay Designer for Saints Row 2 • COOP systems design • Mission design • Level design and scripting

Volition Inc

• Saint’s Row 2(XBOX360/PS3/PC) – 3 rd person open world action shooter – Fully Featured COOP

Topics Covered • The SR2 Vision for Coop • Strategies for Designing Coop Gameplay • Developing Systems to Support Coop • Why Do Coop? • Lessons Learned

Vision • Non-tethered • Drop in/out anytime co-op • Both players earn rewards and progression • Players are truly cooperative

Split Screen

Topics Covered • The SR2 Vision for Coop • Strategies for Designing Coop Gameplay • Why Do Coop? • Developing Systems to Support Coop • Lessons Learned

Ambition to Fruition • Open world games are highly complex • Decision not to tether increased complexity • Afforded some our greatest success as well

Keys to open world • Sandbox/Emergent gameplay is supported by gameplay systems • Modal gameplay

Keys to SR2 COOP • Letting players do anything they could do in single player • Make gameplay feel natural and seamless • Encourage true cooperative play

Modal Gameplay • Activities – One off special mechanics • Missions – Story driven – Featured core mechanics

Starting modal gameplay • Players should be able to be separate in the sandbox • Players need to be together for modal gameplay • Teleport the players at the start

Defining COOP for Missions • Physically separate but parallel goals • Specific coop mechanics • No significant outward change to objectives

Missions • Physically separate but parallel goals – Players can stay together or take separate paths – Each player must complete their goal – Players come together at the end

Missions

Defining COOP for Missions • Specific coop mechanics – Both players locked together

Missions

Defining COOP for Missions • No significant outward change to objectives

Missions

Defining COOP for Activities • Sometimes difficult to find a natural extension of gameplay • Game stability offered problems with iteration

Defining COOP for Activities • A threshold score within a time limit • Specific mechanics in a linear progression

Defining COOP for Activities • a threshold score within a time limit

Activities

Defining COOP for Activities • Specific mechanics in a linear progression • Each player has to be successful at their role

Escort • Gave each player a role • Each player had to succeed • Provided for some good fodder in design meetings

Activities

Great Risk Brings Great Reward

DEVELOPING SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT COOP

Topics Covered • The SR2 Vision for Coop • Strategies for Designing Coop Gameplay • Developing Systems to Support Coop • Why Do Coop? • Lessons Learned

Vehicle Camera

Trigger Placement

Spawning • Two methods – Function that held spawning – Spawn NPCs early

Balancing • Decrease players hit points • Decrease players weapon damage • Increase numbers of enemies

Measure twice, cut once • Evaluate features carefully • New features adds much more risk in a coop scenario • We didn’t cut much of anything

Saving game progression These basic rules apply: • The client joins at the point where the server has progressed • Players must still complete all prerequisites for rewards • Both players earn progression and mission/activity specific rewards when playing together

Case Study: Coop Game Progression • Client has completed the first 2 missions of an 8 mission set. • Server has completed the first 6 missions of the same 8 mission set. • Client then joins the server’s game and completes the last 2 missions of the 8 mission set and then disconnects and resumes playing in single player.

What happens for server: • Server receives mission specific reward for all missions • Server receives achievements for completing all missions in the set • The server then can continue with the game as if they had never played coop.

What happens for the client: • Mission 1 • Mission 2 • Mission 3 • Mission 4 • Mission 6 • Mission 7 • Mission 8

Too Complex? • Allow players to have more opportunities to join • Players gain rewards that can be taken back to their single player game • Players progress the game

Topics Covered • The SR2 Vision for Coop • Strategies for Designing Coop Gameplay • Why Do Coop? • Developing Systems to Support Coop • Lessons Learned

Players are connected! XBOX 360 Connected Users Silver Gold XBOX 360 Connected Users Premium Gold 0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Players are connected! PS3 Connected Users Used PlayStation Home Purchased at PS Store Downloaded Demos PS3 Connected Users 40% 45% 50% 55%

Players are connected! Reasons to provide online content: – Help players discover your product – Players expect online features – Increase shelf life – Providing players a social gaming experience

Topics Covered • The SR2 Vision for Coop • Strategies for Designing Coop Gameplay • Why Do Coop? • Developing Systems to Support Coop • Lessons Learned

Drop in/out anytime co-op • Join anytime • Progression is saved • Players earn rewards

Joining a Cheater • Not handled well • Possibility of lost progression

Story

Story • Difference in sets due to overall game progression • Each player is the star of their own cutscene

“No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy” - Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke

Notoriety

Diversion HUD

Technical underpinnings • Saints Row 1 multiplayer code • Client /Server relationship

Client Server AI, Scripting, processing Report Client actions Update Client with Results

Be warned! • Flexibility in approach is vital • Be ready to re-engineer or cut features

No Tether Strikes Again • As objects in the world increased the client suffered

Rethinking Solutions: Hybrid solution AI, Scripting, processing AI, Scripting, processing Both are Synched Both are Synched

Downside • All systems had to re-engineered • Hampered designs ability to iterate gameplay

Upside • Limited parallel processing • More AI in a coop game

Topics Covered • The SR2 Vision for Coop • Strategies for Designing Coop Gameplay • Why Do Coop? • Developing Systems to Support Coop • Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned - Programming • Every system had to be COOP friendly • Every system touched could break COOP • Enormous amounts of bugs were created

Lessons Learned - QA • 37% of all Bugs involved COOP • Staffing issues

Lessons Learned - Design • Focus on stability not new features • Make cuts early – We didn’t cut much of anything on SR2 – Pushed content into the game until the last minute

Lessons Learned - Design • Story continuity may take a back seat

Lessons Learned - Design • Un-tethered in an open world creates huge complexity – Creates huge possibilities for emergent gameplay

Lessons Learned - Design • Coop was well worth the time and effort • Coop was well regarded by our players/reviewers • Design everything with COOP in mind

QUESTIONS? David Bowring david.bowring@volition-inc.com